Choosing a Linux distro with LT support, a stable and lean 2D UI: Linux Mint 13 Xfce

Summary: The xfce 4 desktop does what I need and Linux Mint 13 Xfce is my distro of choice.

My priorities were

1. Long term support, so that I continue to get updates and security patches over the next 3+ years.   I've moved to Ubuntu and so the distro choice would likely be their 12.04 LTS release or a derivative there of.
2. A stable 2D UI.  I cut my teeth on X11 (before Linux) and very early Linux distros (Slackware).  I don't need a fancy GUI environment.  The 3D effects are a waste on me.   In the past, I eventually got used to Gnome2 based environments due to Ubuntu 9.x and 10.x releases, but the recent switch to Unity was not acceptable to me.

I decided to try Xfce which many distros support as their lean, but modern UI option. Since many lean GUIs have been around for years, the fact that many distros have chosen Xfce as their lean UI is encouraging for its long term support.

I compared Ubuntu LTS 12.04 Xfce versus Linux Mint 13 "Maya" Xfce, which is based on the ubuntu release.  Mint came with a newer version of Xfce (4.10 versus 4.08) and just looked better.  And the Mint default system menu was nicely filled out opposed to the more spartan Ubuntu menus.  Easy choice.

The ASUS R704A 17" laptop is the same as an X75A-104A.

TL;DR: The big take aways are:

1. I've opened my R704A-RB31 and yes there is a single empty DIMM slot.
2. The Asus R704A is the same as the Asus X75A-Z104.

I bought this laptop / notebook at Fry's on a great sale ($378), hoping to upgrade the RAM to 8GB, as it comes with 4GB.

Dilemma:
Both Fry's and Newegg web sites said there was one empty DIMM slot allowing upto 8GB.  Good.

Many, many other sites on the internet including microcenter indicated there was one 4GB DIMM soldered to the M/B and that was it.  No upgrading.  Bad.

The ASUS website had no information on the R704A.  No specs.  No downloads.  No nothing.   Ack.

Several weeks later, the ASUS support site still had limited information but I was able to download a user manual, which was labelled X75A-104A, which is another 17" laptop ASUS makes.  And this model has full specs/info on the Asus support site.  And it says there is a single DIMM slot allowing upto 8GB of RAM.  Here's a link to all  manuals and documentation  for this laptop.  Choose other tabs too.

To get at the RAM and hard drive, unscrew and remove the two screws holding the big panel which covers the front half of the bottom.  Pull the plastic toward the front and it should just slide off.

Armed with this knowledge I finally opened the laptop and indeed there is an unfilled user accessible memory slot.

AMD A4/A6/A8 CPUs can only take 16GB of RAM

The motherboards for these CPUs claim upto 64GB of non-ECC RAM but in practice the Asus MBs have only verified 1, 2 or 4GB DIMMS.  With 4 memory slots, that is 16GB total.  In short the M/B only work with upto 4GB DIMMS and this applies to all ASUS FM slot M/Bs.

I tried putting in an 8GB DIMM and it was simply not recognized.  So much for 32GB, let alone 64GB of RAM in a A6 system.

Samba issue: nmbd cannot bind to the broadcast address

I guess I hadn't run Samba on my Linux box for a while as it failed to run.

Checking /var/logs/samba/log.{s,n}mbd I found

2012/12/15 16:34:29.461856,  0] lib/util_sock.c:880(open_socket_in)
  bind failed on port 137 socket_addr = xx.yy.zz.255.
  Error = Cannot assign requested address
[2012/12/15 16:34:29.429656,  0] nmbd/nmbd_subnetdb.c:118(make_subnet)
  nmbd_subnetdb:make_subnet()
    Failed to open nmb bcast socket on interface xx.yy.zz.255 for port 137.  Error was Cannot assign requested address


A quick Google search on the actual error message, "Failed to open nmb bcast socket on"
pulled up various articles that Samba 3.5.x and possibly some of 3.6.x had a bug.

The fix:
Change my interface specifications in my smb.conf file

# Work around for bug
   interfaces = lo eth0
 
# This doesnn't work in 3.5.4 as we can't bind to the eth0 bcast addr !?
#    interfaces = 127.0.0.1/8 xx.yy.zz.vv/mm

Tweaking firefox

1) Have a lot of tabs? Worried about FF slowing your machine to a crawl on a restart? Change FF so it only keeps the active tabs in memory. And at startup it only loads the active tab on each window.

Visit the URL about:config, proceed past the warning, and then set
browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs
to 0 (zero) by double clicking on that value (you can search for "max" first to narrow the list of variables).

2) Install the add-on "Noscript". This add on is an inconvenience initially and occasionally afterwards, as it is a Javascript blocker. When you visit a site you trust for the first time, you'll have to let Noscript know that you want to allow JS from that site. But if you inadvertantly visit or get redirected to a shady site, it will block the JS saving your rear. Choose "Tools" -> "Add-ons" and then search for "Noscript". Install it and restart the browser. By default it will install a little icon in your address bar.

Airlink ar410w is not compatible with DD-WRT

Having just installed DD-WRT and then Tomato on a new Netgear 3500L, it was exciting to run a real OS on a router. I also had an old Airlink 101 AR410W still running, but upon checking it only supported WPA TKIP, not the newer WPA2 AES (avoid TKIP). I vaguely recall WPA being not that secure, and wanted WPA2. But there is no firmware upgrade from the manufacturer product page. I realized Tomato only supports a small subset of routers using modern CPUs, but could I upgrade to DD-WRT as it supports a fair number of routers.

A bit of hunting around shows that

1. This router is the same as the DLink DI-624 which is specifically not supported by DD-WRT, in large part because it only has 1MB of flash, and you need 2MB just to run the mini version and 4MB to run anything full featured.
2. The specs are it has a Atheros 2313 CPU + radio, Marvell 88E6060 ethernet switch, and Macronix/AMD 29LV800BTC-90 1MB Flash.
3. The FCC ID from the label is: O7J-WLRT2454-QAO

In any case, it is clear I cannot install DD-WRT on this pre-2006 router.

Changing the user id of an existing user

There is an existing user Adam with user id 1000 that you want to change to user id 2345.
Adam is the only user on the system and is an admin, of course. Adam also has an encrypted home directory.

1) Log in as Adam.
2) Create a new admin user, say call Newsome.
3) Log out as Adam and log in as Newsome. Ensure that "sudo id" succeeds as Newsome in case you mess something up with Adam's login
4) Run System -> Administration -> Users and Groups
5) Choose Adam, then Advanced Settings. In the Advanced User Settings window choose "Advanced" and then change the user id.
6) Hit "OK" and then "Close" on the User Settings tab.
7) Run "grep Adam /etc/passwd" and verify the new user id is 2345.
8) Run "ls -ln /home/Adam" and verify the owner id is 2345.
9) In a terminal go to and run "sudo chown Adam /home/.ecryptfs/Adam"
10) In a terminal, login as Adam and verify that all the files in the home directory exist.

Ubuntu note: Normal user start at 1000. Anything below that is considered reserved, but you are free to use those IDs. On the login screen, if your ID is below 1000, you'll have to choose "Other user" (or something like that) and enter your username, which is arguable slightly more secure but more annoying.